Arbol's platform quotes contracts on drought risk for energy operators without adjuster visits or depreciation schedules. The product asks for a location, a peril, a trigger, and a payout. The contract pays when the satellite data confirms the trigger.
Arbol, founded in 2018 by Siddhartha Jha and headquartered in New York, sells parametric insurance against climate and weather risks across agriculture, energy, maritime, and hospitality [Arbol]. In April 2024 it raised a $60 million Series B led by Giant Ventures and Opera Tech Ventures, bringing total disclosed funding to roughly $68 million [Business Insider, May 2024].
The wedge is the trigger
Traditional crop or business-interruption insurance is a slow, contested conversation. Parametric flips that. The policy fires on a number a satellite or weather station reports, not on an inspector's judgment. Arbol's platform layers pricing analytics on top of the trigger structure and pushes the workflow out to agents and brokers, with the underlying insurance written through Arbol Insurance Services [Arbol Insurance Services].
Reinsurance is the new act
Arbol launched Arbol Underwriters Ltd. (AUL), a Bermuda-based MGU focused on parametric reinsurance [Arbol; InsurTechNews]. Going to Bermuda is the conventional path for participating in the economics of the risk rather than just earning a brokerage cut. Arbol is now both a distributor and an MGU that prices, places, and takes a share of the risk.
The numbers the founder has put on the record
Jha has described a steep premium ramp: $2.2 million transacted in 2020, $70 million in 2021 [Arbol Medium, 2021]. The company has since cited $170 million in gross written premium for 2022 [Arbol, January 2023; Artemis.bm], and Insurance Journal reported a roughly 50% revenue increase in 2023 [Insurance Journal, 2024].
| Year | Premium (M USD) |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 2.2 |
| 2021 | 70 |
| 2022 | 170 |
A founder from the commodities desk
Before Arbol, Jha was a Cross-Commodities Quantitative Strategist at Citadel, and he co-founded dClimate, a decentralized climate data ecosystem [The Org; InsureTech Connect Asia]. Parametric insurance is a commodities-pricing problem: writing a derivative on weather requires both the data feed and the model to price the tail. Current open roles include a Backend Engineer for AI Infrastructure and a Quantitative Python Engineer alongside a Claims Examiner II [Lever].
The competitive read
Arbol is not alone, with competitors including Descartes Underwriting, Floodbase, Parametrix, Skyline Partners, and Raincoat. Arbol's licensed agency footprint across all 50 states gives it a direct path to brokers [Arbol Insurance Services]. Standing up AUL in Bermuda moves Arbol into the underwriting margin [Arbol]. Jha's parallel role at dClimate gives the pricing engine a climate dataset relationship most pure insurtechs have to license [InsureTech Connect Asia].
Where the wheels could come off
The risk is basis risk: the gap between what the trigger pays and what the customer actually lost. Every parametric carrier wrestles with this, and the answer is a slow grind of structuring more granular triggers and educating buyers. The $170 million gross written premium figure is well sourced [Arbol, January 2023], but the revenue retellings on the founder-interview circuit are tracked at orange confidence [Frontlines.io].
The next twelve months
The milestones to watch are concrete: Does AUL place its first reinsurance treaties at scale? Does the Series B carry Arbol to profitability on an underwriting basis? Does the hiring pattern produce a tighter loss ratio in 2025? Arbol's answer to climate risk is that the contract should be a number on a satellite feed, not a conversation with an adjuster.